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<p>As payment tools proliferate, consumers routinely combine cash, cards, mobile wallets, and peer-to-peer apps, yet relatively little is known about how they explain their payment choices in specific purchase contexts. This qualitative study draws on semi-structured interviews with 38 U.S. adults to provide an interpretive, exploratory account of the mechanisms that guide everyday payment decisions. The analysis identifies five recurring motivational profiles related to managing risk and control, pursuing rewards, simplifying finances, seeking convenience through digital integration, and aligning payments with ethical and relational concerns. These motivations reflect the role of trust in institutions and technologies, emotional responses to complexity and fraud, and early financial socialization. We interpret these profiles through four theoretical perspectives: the Technology Acceptance Model, trust-based models of technology use, Regulatory Focus Theory, and research on moral consumption and the social meaning of money. These perspectives show that payment choices reflect more than convenience or cost alone. Participants described treating payment instruments as a flexible set of tools and switching between them to manage risk, effort, and relationships within context-specific constraints. The study highlights how these mechanisms can inform formal payment-choice frameworks and suggests that trust, perceived fairness, and routine are central to understanding digital payment adoption alongside access and functionality.</p>

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Motivational profiles in consumer retail payment choice

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月4日

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  • Philip Trocchia,
  • Alison Watkins

摘要

As payment tools proliferate, consumers routinely combine cash, cards, mobile wallets, and peer-to-peer apps, yet relatively little is known about how they explain their payment choices in specific purchase contexts. This qualitative study draws on semi-structured interviews with 38 U.S. adults to provide an interpretive, exploratory account of the mechanisms that guide everyday payment decisions. The analysis identifies five recurring motivational profiles related to managing risk and control, pursuing rewards, simplifying finances, seeking convenience through digital integration, and aligning payments with ethical and relational concerns. These motivations reflect the role of trust in institutions and technologies, emotional responses to complexity and fraud, and early financial socialization. We interpret these profiles through four theoretical perspectives: the Technology Acceptance Model, trust-based models of technology use, Regulatory Focus Theory, and research on moral consumption and the social meaning of money. These perspectives show that payment choices reflect more than convenience or cost alone. Participants described treating payment instruments as a flexible set of tools and switching between them to manage risk, effort, and relationships within context-specific constraints. The study highlights how these mechanisms can inform formal payment-choice frameworks and suggests that trust, perceived fairness, and routine are central to understanding digital payment adoption alongside access and functionality.